Friday, September 21, 2007

I'm posting this a day early because I think the post I did earlier is painfully boring but I don't feel good about deleting it. So this should push it down the page.

It's my 300th entry, everyone! Which is really a little hard to imagine. Because if I put all my blog posts together now, they would be a book.

I already did the "100 Things About Me" post when I hit 100 posts. Can I possibly do a "300 Things" post? Would I just add 200 more things to the 100 things post? Would anyone read it? Can I even think of 300 things to put on a list? Maybe I could list 300 people I like. And maybe some of my readers would see themselves listed. Ew. That sounds horrible. 300 songs I like? I could do that...my MP3 player is right next to me. No. I don't know.

Hey, I've got it. Since I'm currently keeping a food diary, which means I'm obsessively calorie counting, how about a list of 300 calorie things I'd like to eat. This list isn't likely to reach 300 items. Because that would really be gross. Keep in mind that for me, it takes 30 minutes on the elliptical to burn 300 calories. And I have been known to ask myself before eating something whether it's worth 30 minutes. And I often say no.

1. 60 grams of Cheez-Its. 2. A regular size candy bar3. One Egg McMuffin (seriously!)4. One grande size Latte from Starbuck's (whole milk)5. Five Nutter Butter cookies6. Two beers (heck, with the right beer, it might just be one)7. 1 slice pepperoni pizza8. HALF a SMALL chocolate malt from Dairy Queen (OH MY GOODNESS THAT'S SCARY)9. Three ounces of brie10. Three slices of French bread

That's quite enough, right? Feeling guilty, depressed? Because, seriously, I could easily consume all that in a day. And still be very, very hungry afterward. But I would have just consumed 3000 calories, about twice as many as I should for my weight and build.

Which is why I'm doing this food diary in the first place. I talked to another trainer from the gym yesterday (a woman), bemoaning the fact that I've been working out for two months and haven't lost a single pound. She immediatly suspected food was the problem. I consider myself to be a pretty reasonable eater...I don't gorge on sweets or junk food and hardly ever eat fast food. I do splurge here and there, especially at certain times of the month, but I usually "pay it back" at the gym.

But that list just made me think. Those "big ticket" items, like the ones I just listed, do squeak in. 60 grams of Cheez-Its is more than a serving, but how many people just eat one serving? Come on. Admit it. Most of us eat them out of the box and definitely aren't counting to 27 crackers then putting them away. I think I might be eating a few more (meaning 500 or so) calories per day than I've been thinking. And 500 calories a day is 3500 calories per week, which is a pound. Interesting.

I'm starting to see the lure of the new 100-calorie packs of snack foods.